{"id":3997,"date":"2016-02-21T00:01:14","date_gmt":"2016-02-21T06:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=3997"},"modified":"2016-02-20T15:55:48","modified_gmt":"2016-02-20T21:55:48","slug":"7-imps-7-kicks-471-featuring-lucy-ruth-cummins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=3997","title":{"rendered":"7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks #471: Featuring Lucy Ruth Cummins"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“Once upon a time there was a hungry lion, a penguin, a turtle, a little calico kitten,
a brown mouse, a bunny with floppy ears and a bunny with un-floppy ears, a frog,
a bat, a pig, a slightly bigger pig, a woolly sheep, a koala, and also a hen.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread)<\/center>
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\nI’ve got a few spreads today from Lucy Ruth Cummins’ A Hungry Lion, or a Dwindling Assortment of Animals<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, coming from Atheneum next month. Cummins is not only a writer and illustrator; she is also a full-time art director. (Here’s<\/a><\/strong> her site.) This new book, which she rendered via brush marker, gouache, graphite, colored pencil, and charcoal, is the story of a very hungry lion, as you can see from the three spreads here today. It takes the sweet ending you expect and turns it on its head in the vein of the contemporary subversive picture book, but instead of a surprise revenge, Cummins brings readers yet another twist at the close of the story, which I won’t ruin for you. <\/p>\n

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There’s a lot of humor here — the dark humor, it goes without saying, of the hapless animals’ fates. There are delightful jolts — one in which the lion’s face dominates the spread, staring up close at the reader, as well as spreads where the lights are turned off, the reader seeing utter darkness in one. There is some shimmying, animals in party hats, and a “lovely four-tiered cake with buttercream frosting.” (Can’t beat that.) Cummins’ text is peppered with delicious, precise words (“a contented koala”), mixed in with intentionally imprecise phrases, like “a bat doing his bat thing.” The narrator also takes on a relaxed, almost chummy tone and is quite often unsure of herself; there are some “Wait a second”s and “Hold on”s. All this makes for a great read-aloud. <\/p>\n

The last animal standing … well, it’s funny stuff, but I won’t ruin for that for you either. Here are two more spreads. …
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“Hold on. Once upon a time there was a hungry lion, a penguin, a turtle, a brown mouse, those two rabbits—one with ears that flopped, one with ears that did not—-
a frog, a bat, a regular-size pig, and a koala.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread)<\/center>
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\n<\/a>
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“Wait a second. It seems there was <\/em>just a hungry lion, a turtle, only the floppy-eared rabbit, a frog, a bat, and a pig. And apparently? No one else.”<\/em>
(Click to enlarge spread)<\/center>
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\nA HUNGRY LION, OR A DWINDLING ASSORTMENT OF ANIMALS. Copyright \u00a9 2016 by Lucy Ruth Cummins. Illustrations used by permission of the publisher, Atheneum Books for Young Readers, New York.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Note for any new readers: 7-Imp\u2019s 7 Kicks is a weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. New kickers are always welcome. <\/p>\n

* * * Jules’ Kicks * * *<\/strong><\/font>
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1)<\/strong><\/font> I’m reading Elizabeth Strout’s My Name Is Lucy Barton<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, and it’s unputdownable. <\/p>\n

2)<\/strong><\/font> Finishing Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry<\/em><\/strong><\/a> with my girls. <\/p>\n

3)<\/strong><\/font> I always look forward to reading this<\/a><\/strong> every year, USBBY’s selection of Outstanding International Books. <\/p>\n

4)<\/strong><\/font> I enjoyed reading this conversation<\/a><\/strong> with Alison McGhee<\/a><\/strong> and Kathi Appelt<\/a><\/strong>, because my girls and I are enjoying their new book they talk about there. <\/p>\n

5)<\/strong><\/font> Seeing two librarian friends while out yesterday. <\/p>\n

6)<\/strong><\/font> Re-scheduling a research trip I had to cancel last Fall. Everything seems to be falling back into place. <\/p>\n

7)<\/strong><\/font> I was sad to see the last episode of Gravity Falls<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, but I’m glad for the fun we Danielsons had watching that show while it lasted. <\/p>\n

What are YOUR<\/font><\/strong> kicks this week? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Once upon a time there was a hungry lion, a penguin, a turtle, a little calico kitten,a brown mouse, a bunny with floppy ears and a bunny with un-floppy ears, a frog,a bat, a pig, a slightly bigger pig, a woolly sheep, a koala, and also a hen.”(Click to enlarge spread)   I’ve got a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seven-good-things-before-monday","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3997\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}